Visual Studio 2013 Cookbook

Understanding the latest features of Visual Studio can speed up and streamline your projects. And there’s no better learning tool than this collection of focused recipes that gives you the fast, hands-on experience you need.

Visual Studio 2013 Cookbook

Cookbook

Jeff Martin, Richard Banks March 2014

Understanding the latest features of Visual Studio can speed up and streamline your projects. And there’s no better learning tool than this collection of focused recipes that gives you the fast, hands-on experience you need.

Book Details

About This Book

Provides you with coverage of all the new Visual Studio 2013 features regardless of your programming language preference

Recipes describe how to apply Visual Studio to all areas of development: writing, debugging, and application lifecycle maintenance

Straightforward examples of building apps for Windows 8.1

Who This Book Is For

If you are a developer excited about the new features introduced in Visual Studio 2013, then no matter what your programming language of choice is, Visual Studio 2013 Cookbook is for you. You should have a good knowledge of working with previous versions of Visual Studio to enjoy the recipes in this book. This book provides practical examples to help you use Visual Studio 2013 more effectively.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1: Discovering Visual Studio 2013

Introduction

Synchronizing settings

Touring the VS2013 IDE

Project round-tripping

Managing the editor windows

Finding Visual Studio commands

Searching and navigating

Navigating in depth

Chapter 2: Getting Started with Windows Store Applications

Introduction

Getting a Windows Store app developer license

Creating a Windows Store app

Adding a Windows Store item template to your app

Using the Windows Store app simulator

Defining capabilities and contracts

Analyzing your App's performance

Packaging your Windows Store app

Validating your Windows Store app

Chapter 3: Web Development – ASP.NET, HTML5, CSS, and JavaScript

Introduction

Getting started with Bootstrap

Previewing changes across multiple browsers

Creating HTML5 web pages

Taking advantage of the CSS editor improvements

Understanding the JavaScript editor improvements

Adding bundling and minification to JavaScript and CSS files

Verifying pages with the Page Inspector tool

Chapter 4: .NET Framework 4.5.1 Development

Introduction

Adding the Ribbon to a WPF application

Creating a state machine in Visual Studio

Creating a task-based WCF service

Managing packages with NuGet

Unit testing .NET applications

Sharing class libraries across runtimes

Detecting duplicate code

Chapter 5: Debugging Your .NET Application

Introduction

Maximizing everyday debugging

Debugging on remote machines and tablets

Debugging code in production with IntelliTrace

Debugging parallel code

Visualizing concurrency

Chapter 6: Asynchrony in .NET

Introduction

Making your code asynchronous

Understanding asynchrony and the Windows Runtime

Using asynchrony with web applications

Working with actors and the TPL Dataflow Library

Chapter 7: Unwrapping C++ Development

Introduction

Using XAML with C++

Unit testing C++ applications

Analyzing your C++ code

Using a custom rule set

Working with DirectX in Visual Studio 2013

Creating a shader using DGSL

Creating and displaying a 3D model

Using the Visual Studio Graphics Diagnostics

Chapter 8: Working with Team Foundation Server 2013

Introduction

Creating a new TFS project

Managing your work

Using local workspaces for source control

Performing code reviews

Getting feedback from your users

Using Git for source control

Chapter 9: Languages

Introduction

Fortifying JavaScript applications with TypeScript

Integrating Python into Visual Studio

Integrating Python with .NET

What You Will Learn

Customize the editor’s new abilities to fit your development style

Create apps for Windows 8.1

Use Visual Studio to debug parallel and concurrent programs

Integrate .NET Framework 4.5.1 effectively

Learn about both the Express and premium editions of Visual Studio

Maximize Visual Studio's C++ tools to make development easier

Put TypeScript to work in your web applications

Protect and manage your source code with Team Foundation Server

Learn about Visual Studio Online

In Detail

Visual Studio 2013 is the premier tool for developers targeting the Microsoft platform. Learning how to effectively use this technology can enhance your productivity while simplifying your most common tasks, allowing you more time to focus on your project.

Visual Studio 2013 Cookbook will introduce you to all the new areas of Visual Studio and how they can quickly be put to use to improve your everyday development tasks. With this book, you will learn not only what VS2013 offers, but what it takes to put it to work for your projects.

Updated and expanded for VS2013, this book begins by introducing you to the interface changes to Visual Studio and then moves on to demonstrate how VS2013 can be used for developing desktop, mobile, and web applications. This book provides a comprehensive overview of all areas of Visual Studio. This practical approach will benefit you greatly if you are a newcomer but also if you want a tour of what the latest edition of Visual Studio has to offer. The recipes in this book provide useful examples of VS2013 which can help you whether you are targeting the Web, mobile devices, or the traditional Windows desktop.

Authors

Jeff Martin

Jeff Martin is a long-time technology enthusiast and has been a contributing writer for InfoQ (www.infoq.com) for over two years, focusing on .NET and Microsoft-based platforms. Having experience in writing, testing, and designing software, he enjoys learning about new technologies and explaining them to a broader audience.

Readers are encouraged to follow @VSDevTips on Twitter to receive updates on the book as well as news for getting the most out of Visual Studio.

Richard Banks

Richard Banks has developed software for the last 20 years for a wide range of industries and development platforms. Over the years he has played many roles including that of a developer, team lead, project manager, and CIO/CTO. He is a Professional Scrum Trainer, runs the Sydney ALT.NET user group and the Talking Shop Down Under podcast. He owns and contributes to a few open source projects, and has spoken at Microsoft TechEd and a number of other events and user groups around Australia. For some strange reason, he gets a real kick out of helping development teams to improve and produce great software. If you want to get in touch, he tweets at @rbanks54 and blogs at http://www.richard-banks.org/. He currently works as a Principal Consultant for Readify and is a Microsoft Visual Studio ALM MVP.

Alerts & Offers

Series & Level

We understand your time is important. Uniquely amongst the major publishers, we seek to develop and publish the broadest range of learning and information products on each technology. Every Packt product delivers a specific learning pathway, broadly defined by the Series type. This structured approach enables you to select the pathway which best suits your knowledge level, learning style and task objectives.

Learning

As a new user, these step-by-step tutorial guides will give you all the practical skills necessary to become competent and efficient.

Beginner's Guide

Friendly, informal tutorials that provide a practical introduction using examples, activities, and challenges.

Essentials

Fast paced, concentrated introductions showing the quickest way to put the tool to work in the real world.

Cookbook

A collection of practical self-contained recipes that all users of the technology will find useful for building more powerful and reliable systems.

Blueprints

Guides you through the most common types of project you'll encounter, giving you end-to-end guidance on how to build your specific solution quickly and reliably.

Mastering

Take your skills to the next level with advanced tutorials that will give you confidence to master the tool's most powerful features.

Starting

Accessible to readers adopting the topic, these titles get you into the tool or technology so that you can become an effective user.

Progressing

Building on core skills you already have, these titles share solutions and expertise so you become a highly productive power user.